PRODUCTIONS staging at The Playhouse this week will pay homage to Africa Day, which was marked on May 25.
Musa Hlatshwayo, a multi-award-winning dancer and choreographer, will perform in Udodana, which explores issues of black masculinities.
Shaka Zulu: The Gaping Wound is a musical comprising a 40-member cast and backed by an eight-piece band.
Actress/comedienne Jailoshini Naidoo and comedian Carvin H Goldstone will share the stage for a night of stand-up comedy.
All these shows take place from May 25 to 28.
Black masculinity
Hlatshwayo’s Udodana premiered on the 2018 National Arts Festival’s main dance programme where he was the Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for dance.
Exploring issues of black masculinities, the work features Hlatshwayo and his company of 10 all-male multi-skilled ensemble.
Hlatshwayo said Udodana was a term that was mostly used in churches or organisations where people gather for cultural or religious purposes. It refers to the sons or the princes.
“It is a poetic word that speaks about a collective of young men who are either on the journey of becoming the older men or the fathers. They are literally the sons or the princes. I wanted to create this piece, which would speak to the kinds of relationships that we, the sons, usually have with our fathers, particularly in black families.
“I was interested in looking at the kind of lessons that we inherit, and the lifestyles that we are brought up under or into. There are many aspects of life that we learn from our fathers. One could also speak of the rite of passage that young black men are expected to go through in order for them to become Udodana, within the family structure, within their communities and within society.”
In creating the piece, Hlatshwayo said he also interrogated his own personal relationship with his father, who died a few years ago.
The production explores the idea of what it means to be Udodana, to be a son, a prince and a young black man in a black family structure in a black community in black society.
“Other than the burden of being a young black man, who is looked at as the next successor, we do find ourselves experiencing a lot of challenges that are mostly associated with the expectations from our families and our society and from our communities.”
During his research, Hlatshwayo spoke to men from various cultural backgrounds with different perspectives on black masculinity. He spoke with young men and elders in rural areas, townships, informal settlements and hostels.
“The idea of me as a young black man being allowed into such spaces and being allowed to engage with men of different ages and cultural backgrounds speaks a lot about how open we are becoming as a people. Part of our culture requires that you do not question or engage with elderly people on such issues.
“But the fact that I am respected enough to be allowed into these places and people trust me enough to open up about their own background and share their own personal stories, that to me speaks about how open we are becoming. This assures me that Africa is moving forward when it comes to discussing and dissecting issues of black masculinity.”
Udodana will be staged in the Grand Foyer from May 25 to 28 May. Tickets are R90.
Owning local history
The Playhouse Company in association with the South African State Theatre will host the musical Shaka Zulu: The Gaping Wound written by the late playwright Bongani Linda. Meshack Mavuso-Magabane, an award-winning stage, film and television actor and director, will direct the production.
The musical tells the story of the world-renowned warrior king. The story is told through the eyes of a praise singer. It will take the audiences on a journey of historical imagination to the past and lead them back through song, praise poetry and Zulu dancing to a pan-African future that the ancestors envisaged. It will stage at the Playhouse Opera from May 25 to 28. Tickets are R120.
Laugh again
Naidoo and Goldstone will perform stand-up comedy at the Playhouse Loft Theatre on May 27 and May 29.
Naidoo said she last performed live in December 2019.
“It’s been a while and it feels wonderful to be back on stage, just to interact with an audience again. I will be leaving aunty Ramba at home and I’ll be doing a stand-up set. Generally, I tackle a variety of topics in my sets, focusing on real-life everyday situations and experiences. I find that the comedy works better when you can touch a chord with the audience and it’s something they can recognise, relate to and identify with.
“It has been a dismal two years for artists as a result of the live scene having to shut down because of the pandemic. I can't stress enough the importance of people coming out in support of local artists.”
Naidoo added: “If there’s one thing we have realised in this time, it’s the importance of the human connection without which we can feel pretty lonely and very down and a lot of people have been feeling this way. It’s also a time to interact again, connect again, and an opportunity to go out and just laugh again and escape again in the theatre.”
* Tickets for all productions, available at Webtickets.co.za or call the box office at 031 369 9540.
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